


Eyes on you, my prettiest bouquet

by orphan_account



Series: It's you my favorite [4]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 10k a week what, Kinda not, M/M, Nicknames, Yes again, but i'm starting to think about adding clc too because their chemistry, but that's okay, didn't turn out the way i wanted it to, gowon is jisung's sister, hell lot of flowers, i miss haseul, im too tired to function, jisung pwark, lele - Freeform, like a lotta them, loona 127 txt is mentioned, loona and 127 are siblings because i love this concept too much, stan clc cowards, this is getting out of line
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 05:10:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19370260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Everyone knows that Chenle’s rich. It’s an established fact that the humble boy doesn’t deny, so it did give everyone a shock when he decided to take up a part time job at the florist. Well, all but Jisung. He knows the older boy’s love for flowers; he has endured enough hours of lectures on different flowers to know that.Maybe endure is the wrong word though. He will never admit it, but he my or may not enjoy the times just as much as the older.(Aka: Your typical florist boy, friends to lovers AU where they like each other as much as the potted greens. And witnessing their friends fall in love with each other. With a lot of flowers.)





	Eyes on you, my prettiest bouquet

**Author's Note:**

> Okay it is a bad idea to start a fic for the 4th time in a week yay
> 
> A few notes though, this is taken place about half to one year after the previous three fics. Mark and Lucas and the dreamies are all of same age in senior year, except that Jisung and Chenle are in junior. I’ll repeat this again: I have no idea of how the American schooling system works, so don’t fight me if I get anything wrong sksksks.
> 
> Also it might make more sense if you read the fics in this series first but it's also okay as a solo fic!
> 
> *heejin's voice: LET'S GET IT

Everyone knows that Chenle’s rich. It’s an established fact that the humble boy doesn’t deny, so it did give everyone a shock when he decided to take up a part time job at the florist. Well, all but Jisung. He knows the older boy’s love for flowers; he has endured enough hours of lectures on different flowers to know that.

Maybe endure is the wrong word though. He will never admit it, but he my or may not enjoy the times just as much as the older. There’s nothing wrong in liking spending time with your best friend, even though he might be weird and loud, because that’s what best friends are for. That’s what Jisung tells himself every time he feels like he’s drowning in a certain Chinese boy’s smile.

It is normal.  
~

When the two first met, Chenle spoke so little Korean they couldn’t converse. Which did not help the fact they were in their first day of their first year, in front of the lockers, and the mint haired boy was desperately miming words in both Mandarin and English, which the younger understood neither.

“Zhe ci can le. (I’m doomed this time.)” He groans, hands in hair. Without a warning, the older suddenly shouts, “You mei you ren hui shuo guo yu? (Does anybody speak Mandarin?)”

Half of the school turned their heads to look at the wide-eyed, unassuming boy. Jisung’s older sister, Chaewon, gave him a look that can only be saying “Are you sure with this one?”. Eventually, a boy barely taller than Chenle and Jisung walks over, and introduces himself in fluent Chinese and Korean, before leading them both to class. 

Later that day after lunch, Jisung receives a single, red poppy taped to his locker, with a messy scrawl of thanks and more refined words stating the green haired boy’s appreciation for the younger’s help (even though he didn’t actually help). He later learns that it was Renjun who helped translate and copy the words onto the note, which the younger keeps in a safe little box under his bed.

And none of them expected to sit together at lunch, hang around, or witness each other’s blossoming loves in the next three years.  
~

“Ha, wo jiu zhi dao ma! (Ha, I told you I knew!) Pay up, losers!” Renjun shrieks at the sight of Mark and Donghyuck, hand in hand, bashfully walking to the cafeteria in the middle of his junior year. There are enough gay people at school for them to be overlooked by the general mob of students. Everyone by the table groans and fishes 10000 won from their respective bags. “Who told you to not believe me when I said that they’ll get together by the end of this week!” he counts the money carefully before stuffing it in his wallet, grinning the whole time.

“Hey, Mark, we’re happy you finally got your shit together. But seriously? Why does it have to be this week?” Chenle asks.

“First of all, language. Also, it just felt right, there isn’t really an explanation to that? It just felt right.” Mark puts a hand over their conjoined arm, with his boyfriend leaning into him. Jisung pretends to throw up. “Also, why did you think I’m going to the the one confessing?”

“Trust me, hyung, you don’t know how many ‘he loves me he loves me not’ sessions me and Chenle went through. I’d like to bet that if you never took action, he’s going to be single forever.” For better measure, Jisung sticks out his tongue, Donghyuck mirroring the expression. Jeno scowled. “You two never struck me as the PDA type though.” 

“You’re just jealous Jaemin hadn’t made a move yet.” Chenle’s quick to retort. “And you never believe us. You have this big fat chance in front of you, just go get it.”

Jeno shrugs. He’s the math major of the group, yet he doesn’t understand how to use it. Risks are meant to be taken, not calculated, acknowledged and thrown away like another practice problem, but the boy always had a hard time understanding that. Maybe it’s out of insecurity, Jisung quietly notices, but he sure hopes Jaemin gets the cue soon. “Then why don’t you?” He smirks at the younger Chinese, crescents with a whole new meaning. 

“What do you mean?” Chenle says, voice laced with concealed alarm and confusion. Jeno’s smile doesn’t falter. “You know what I’m talking about. Your chance isn’t much lower than mine either.” He says, putting pork in his mouth as Jaemin meets them at the table. The smile sincerifies (is that even a word), and great, there’s another oblivious pair to deal with.

“Is that some kind of an inside joke?” Jisung challenges. “You should let me in, then.”

Chenle chokes over his water, loud coughing spurts all over. “Uh, it’s nothing important, Sung. Nothing you need to know.” However, the other boys smile in unison, Renjun saying something in Chinese that makes the younger blush even harder.

Huh. Weird. Chenle is never flustered (mostly because he doesn’t understand that much Korean to decipher it’s real meaning), but the shade of red on his face suits him too. It’s cute and endearing, and Jisung wouldn’t mind to see it again.

Three weeks after the incident, the younger receives yet another few clusters of purple, dried flowers, a familiar handwriting with the date of a fateful late March Tuesday. Through Mark’s brother’s dance group, which Chaewon’s is really close to, he learns that those are Sumires, a special type of Japanese violets. Yuta asks him with a raised brow who sent those, and when Jisung replied truthfully, he pats him on the shoulder. “Good luck, Sung, even though you won’t need it.”  
~

“Le? Why did you get a job?” Jaemin’s voice was laced with incredulity. “Are you still not satisfied with what you have? What can you not afford?”

“Huh?” Chenle takes a moment to savour the question. “No. I just like flowers, you know that.” 

“Yeah, but I can’t believe that you got a job just because you like flowers. Seriously? What happened to the Chenle that called us to help him pick up the remote because it was on the table and he was of the couch?” Jaemin sighs. “We’re getting so old now. I’m in senior year, and I can’t believe my child is actually working with a salary and stuff.”

“Offence taken. Also, it wasn’t that far from your home to mine. We live in the same neighbourhood.” Chenle reasons. 

“Stop attacking Lele, why is he the victim here.” Jisung adds nonchalantly. “I mean, he likes flowers, so what’s the problem?” 

Jeno takes his boyfriend’s side and scoffs. “Well, it’s kind of obvious that he likes you more than those flowers.” 

“Ah, Sung, before you get any ideas, flowers are the most important thing in my life after not failing Socio. So don’t listen to those strangers, I raised you.” Chenle clarifies, tone of finality in his voice that will undoubtedly get overthrown. “But you’re right, what’s wrong with me getting a job because of what I love? I’m not Mark. I won’t hate flowers after I go work at a florist’s.”

Mark’s eyes widen. “Why am I the centre of conversation now? What did I ever do to anger you?” 

“To be fair, you threw a bucket of water over my head and made me run, soaked, from school to the forest.” Jisung says unhelpfully. 

“Wow. great. Now the two maknaes are ganging up on us.” Mark announces in a monotone, as if the whole group wasn’t well aware of that already.”

“Are we really less important than your flowers?” The younger wonders out loud to Chenle. The now purple haired boy smiles. “Of course. Maybe not you, but I will sell the rest of them to Satan for one corn chip.”

They’re best friends. So why did that, and the solid, evenly coloured carnation taped to the locker door make his heartbeat elevate?  
~

Chenle’s job does not take up a lot of his time. The shop owner is a university student, Choi Yeonjun, the legendary singer slash rapper of SM university.

(“Oh my God. you are not kidding me right now.” She slams her head down on the table, painfully similar to the time Jinsol did. “Choi Yeonjun is Chenle’s boss? What a fucking small world we live in. Yerimie is his younger sister. Choerry. Rings a bell?” Jisung does know a Choi Yerim in his grade, a girl with a smile so bright she looks like she can melt ice. He shudders. The world is that small.)

“How are the delphiniums doing?” Jisung sits at the corner of the small shop, finding himself spending most of his time there when Chenle has a shift. 

“Great. They don’t really require much care, so just water them and don’t cut it.” He hands the younger a small makeshift bunch, reds and blues and reds peeking out from the parchment paper. “I gotta learn how to put them together nicely, Yeonjun says he’s going to teach me tomorrow.” He toys at the small bunch of flowers, and like a k-drama scene, smells it, sending Chenle into ripples of laughter. “Come on, I’ll tell you about the flowers.”

Jisung likes flowers. While he isn’t as obsessed as the Chenle, he still thinks they’re pretty. But alas, he thinks the one caring for them is even cuter, and no flower can out-beauty the laugh that reminds him of bells. The way he looks at them, so tender and loving, Jisung wishes can be directed to another person instead of the flowers for once and all.  
~

“So. There are a lot of different meanings for different flowers, but love seems to be the most abundant.” Jisung shrugs. He knows that.

“There’s roses. Red roses, the Madonna of flowers. But there are so many others people overlook: acacias, secret love. Uh, Chae noona may or may not have bought some before.” Chenle reveals. “Then there’s globes, immortal love, for those who believe in eternity and fate and stuff. Bellflowers, I’ll love you for my whole life. Blue roses for seduction. I can’t believe Taeyong hyung got them when he confessed to Jaehyun hyung.”

“There are daisies. They’re more on the innocent and pure side.” The older twists the stem of a white daisy with pink ones, handing it to the younger. “It’s used for those really cute flower balls. And there’s also another meaning to it. I think that’s enough for today.” He laughs at Jisung’s betrayed look.

“What’s your favourite flower?” Jisung asks, twirling the stem of the daisies. Chenle thinks for a moment. “I mean, all are beautiful, but green and blue hues?”

“Hence the hair colours?”

“Oh my God, shut up. I told you I shouldn’t have trusted Hyunjin on this. She claimed it would look good, how would I know?” He sends him a disgusted look. “Why did I even bother with her?” The older boy bends over to cut the stems of the lilies, mouth slightly parted in concentration. 

Looking back, he might pinpoint this as the moment he fell in love with a certain boy, hair wilder than ferns and looks more delicate than a budding flower, more captivating than any of their perfumes.  
~

Jisung loves dance as much as Chenle loves flowers. He’s done it for fun, but things start to get serious when Taeyong recruits him as a member of 127: and now he has his first performance.

“Stop sweating, you’ll do fine.” The older dabs sweat off his brows, smoothing the creases caused by increased fear. “Don’t tell Lucas this, but you’re the best dancer I know, okay? So go and do your best. You’re not going to mess up.” He reaches a hand to Jisung’s handing him something. “Edelweisses. Don’t crush them, you have no idea how hard it was to get some.”

Jisung claws at the flowers, remembering Chenle’s words: a flower will not live long without the stems. Yet, the ones he held were stemless. “Tell me anything right now. Just get the performance out of my mind.” 

“Hmm. I don’t know what to tell you, but do you wanna hear about my best friend? He’s the most annoying and loud-”

“Right after you-”

“Ahem. Now if you don’t mind, I would like to pick up from where I was interrupted. He’s annoying, but also cute and hardworking. I’ve seen him working his ass off when he wants to. He’s a great listener, no one will ever listen to me talking about flowers and stuff, but he does. And he doesn’t think it’s weird or anything. And there’s something about himself he doesn’t know. Should I tell you?” Chenle teases, grinning, lips concealed with a secret. 

“I love him. More than anything. But he doesn’t need to know this.” He seals the words with a kiss, chaste, on the younger’s cheek. “Now go. I’ll be here when he’s back.”

Later that night, on that one fateful day with edelweisses in his outfit pocket, nobody shined brighter than the maknae on stage.  
~

Strangely or not, the conversation was not brought up for a week. Jisung would say nothing changed between him and Chenle, to a point so frightening he starts to wonder if the best friend was actually him, which leads to even more overthinking. 

“Okay. Speak up. What’s wrong.” Chaewon blocks a blank Jisung after dinner one day. 

So he tells her, about everything. Not only the talk they had before the performance, but also the way he loves his work at the flower shop, how passionate the older is for a lot of things, and all the reasons Jisung likes him. He talks and talks and talks until his words run dry and Chaewon stumbles. 

“Okay. I did not expect that much, but to my ears, it sounds pretty legitimate. Do you like him?” She asks.

“So much it hurts.” 

“Then, I suggest that you go for it. You might like to search up what the flowers mean though.”  
~

“Lele, we should talk.” Jisung says, bold and direct, lying on Chenle’s bed, fiddling with the greens behind his back. The two of them were hanging out with the rest of the squad, the couples too busy bickering to notice them.

He doesn’t miss the way his best friend tenses after the words. “Aren’t we already talking?” He sees the effort of Chenle, trying to sound light and easy, but the caution dripping from his voice is the finest form of betrayal.

“I just want to give you this.” He holds out the flowers to him, a shade of light blue and the faintest hint of purple. The stems are carefully tied together with a ribbon, upright.

“Sung. You know what this means, right? I don’t think you should give them out that easily.” Chenle is still guarded, but taken back and his voice mellows down to a pitch so low it was nearly impossible. Jaemin witnesses the scene that’s unfolding, and ushers the others out of his room, giving them space.

“I know. Le, I know what the flowers you give me mean. And I mean it too. I still don’t know if you mean anything, but the day you talked about your best friend? I feel the same for mine, too.” He plucks up the courage from God knows where, and kisses the apple of the older’s cheek.

“I gave you rain lilies. You told me what it means. Rain lilies mean reciprocated love.” Jisung shrugs, fighting the urge to coo at Chenle looking all flustered. “I don’t really know that much, but your best friend took a chance. So, what do you say?” Pushing down the doubt that’s about to show, he strikes Chenle a look.

The next thing he feels is warmth against his lips. Soft, plush, and taking no other action, before leaving reluctantly. “I accept the flowers. And the meaning. You’re so dense sometimes, Sung, I can’t believe it took you a whole 3 years to realize that I’ve been in love with you for 3 years.”

“What?” It was Jisung’s time to be confused. “That long? Since when?”

“Since the day I first met you. You haven’t done your research well, have you? There’s another meaning to poppies except for reminiscence of childhood: it means innocent love. I still don’t know how, but I fell for you the almost instant I saw you.”

This time, neither of them utter a word, instead choosing to say what they want with the soundless movement of their lips, sweet and pure.  
~

_“Do you really know what the flowers mean?” Chenle asks him on a plain Friday afterschool, where Chaewon goes out with her girlfriend and the house is theirs._

_“Yeah. Poppies- well, you said it, childlike innocence and innocent love. Sumires, small love and sincerity, or that’s what they say. I still have it.” Replacing the hand that was previously on Chenle’s hair, Jisung puts it on his cheek, leaning in for a short and sweet kiss. “That very weirdly even-coloured carnation, which I guess is code for solid carnation, means yes. Delphiniums means levity, fun, big-hearted, ardent attachment, joy, don’t ask me why I remember it off wikipedia-”_

_“Daisies are also about love, pink and white ones literally means a shy confession. You get things late, dude.” Chenle finishes for him, followed by a small whine of “I can’t believe he dude-zoned his boyfriend”. Silencing the younger with the press of his lips to his knuckles, the older continues. “Edelweisses for courage and good luck. To be honest, I wasn’t sure which of us needed it more. It ended up being all right though, didn’t it. Rain lilies, you know it. I should have sent you pine or something to tell you I’m pining over you, you oblivious dummy.”_

_“I ain’t oblivious, just doubtful.” Jisung shoots back, puffing up his cheeks. Zhong Chenle may not be defeated by a lot of things, but Park Jisung is definitely not on the list. “Sung, you asked me what my favourite flower was before, and I told you. I never got to ask what’s yours though.”_

_“Hmm, let me think.” Jisung mocks a thinking face, hand on chin. “I do have a favourite flower. It’s Zhong Chenle. He’s pretty, nice and everything about him is beautiful. Even though this type of flower may have thorns, it’s to protect the other flowers and itself. You know the best part? There’s only one such flower in the world, and he’s mine.”_

_A faint blush rises on the older. “Kiss me then.”_

_Park Jisung does not need to be told twice. All the flowers in the word cannot rival Zhong Chenle: the flower that’s a bouquet itself, the flower that Jisung will only have eyes for. ___

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably the last of the series I'm shook I started and ended it in one week woop
> 
> I may or may not add an epilogue an it'll be more like a crack fic if I do 
> 
> I miss the concept I first did for YMAYMA and originally planned to continue it throughout the series guess what I didn't
> 
> This has been one hell of a week and thanks for reading this dudes I appreciate it a lot comment if you want to I'll definitely read and probs reply 
> 
> Love yall!


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